


A Queen always pays her debts

by Wapwani



Series: Dragon Queen prompt responses [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), dragon queen - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 01:32:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6100438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wapwani/pseuds/Wapwani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU Dragon Queen. Regina repays a debt of gratitude.</p><p>Part of a series of mini-fics written in response to prompts for Dragon Queen. The prompt for this one was: "Patching up a wound". Previously posted on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Queen always pays her debts

This story was inspired by [this gif](http://onceuponamoustache.tumblr.com/post/19720408827/i-moustache-you-to-bow-before-the-queen)

 

They had Maleficent, caught in a snare of ensorcelled chain that held her stuck in dragon form, and kept her pinned to the ground. As a human, Mal was wry and intelligent, with a cutting wit that would have likely had her freed from the trap by nightfall. As a dragon, Maleficent was raw strength and cunning, but she had no voice. With her magic held at bay, her wings pinned, her fire dimmed and her strength diminished, she had no power to free herself. All she could do was await her fate. And her fate would come in the form of the king’s cruel spears. Word had reached him at the castle, and he had tarried to celebrate, surrounded by his kingsmen and large kegs of ale. The dragon was going nowhere, his wizards assured him, and he would carouse with his men before setting off to witness her execution at noon. (Dawn may have been a more fitting time, but after this much ale, the king was certain he’d be in no mood for a hard ride without sleep and a good breakfast to fortify him.)

So the dragon waited, biding her time until her enemy came before her. If she could not free herself, she swore she would at least take the sniveling king with her.

Regina Mills bided _her_ time in the nearby woods. The softly falling snow hissed as it met her small fire. This campsite was a temporary one - meant only to keep her and her horse comfortable for one night. Her main camp was deeper in the woods, much better hidden than this one, and her forces waited for her there. She was an unusual creature this Regina Mills, current leader of a bandit horde, previously apprentice to the Dark One, former-Queen; but most importantly for this tale, she was once-friend to a dragon. It had been a long time ago - but that friendship had saved Regina, and she intended to repay that debt now.

She still practiced her magic, so she could have cast a glamour over her appearance, but she was reluctant to use her power so close to the wizards. She did not want to risk one of them sensing her, putting them on guard against her plans. So she resorted to old fashioned trickery instead; she wrapped heavy bandages around her chest flattening her bosom and concealing what was still revealed underneath her heavy red riding coat; she bound her dark hair up and jammed a wide-brimmed, elaborately plumed dandy’s hat over her head; she drank a potion that would help her deepen and coarsen her voice. Still not satisfied with the results, she rummaged about in her saddle bags until she found the fake mustache; she had pilfered it from one of her lovers, an actress whose continued employment and safety depended on her ability to convince her audiences that she was a male. Viola had a large collection of props to aid her in this - from side burns to beards - and Regina had known she would not miss this particular mustache. It had been one of Regina’s favorites; dark and lushly curled, it covered nearly half of Viola’s face. The first time Regina had seen her wearing it, she had laughed so hard that Viola had been so affronted she made seducing Regina a matter of pride. Viola had been a very thorough lover, and Regina had parted ways with her reluctantly (It was an inevitable parting. Viola had fallen in love with a vivacious noblewoman, and Regina would not stand in the way of true love). She had stolen the mustache in a moment of weakness though, to keep as a memento of Viola. This would be the first time she’d use it for its original purpose.

The pot of glue she carried in her saddlebags she had taken from one of the king’s sheriffs, who had been pasting wanted posters on trees along the road that ran through the woods. The posters had depicted a very good likeness of Regina, so she had to stop the sheriff before he got to this little village where Maleficent was being held. She’d left the man tied to some trees, and hopefully his men would find him before the bears or wolves did. The posters had made very good kindling for her fire, and now his glue would help complete her disguise, holding the mustache to her lip.

She cut a dashing figure, the deep reds of her jacket contrasting nicely with the shiny black coat of her horse; the feathers in her hat waved jauntily as she rode and her magnificent mustache sat proudly on her lip, obscuring virtually all of her features. The two large kegs she had strapped across her horse’s back sloshed gently as they made their way along the path towards the village.

She heard the men long before they saw her. They were arguing, complaining about the cold and the poor lodgings offered in the village. Regina had time to count the guards (six bored looking men) and wizards (two grey-haired men whose robes looked like they hadn’t been washed in days), and take note of where Maleficent lay (huddled under a mesh of steel chains that glowed evilly against her scales. The mesh stretched over the dragon, pulling cruelly against her body; the chains were connected and held by dozens of pegs that had been hammered deeply into the ground. The mud around the pegs had been fortified, hardened almost to stone). There was a fire over which roasted a haunch of venison and the men carried waterskins. (After one too many incidents when Regina and her forces had easily overcome drunken sheriffs and kingsmen, the king had recently ordered that none of his guards were allowed to drink on duty. It was not a popular ruling, but it was being stringently enforced tonight, no doubt because of the presence of the wizards.)

When the guards finally noticed Regina, they shouted at her to stop.

“Hold there! Friend or foe?”

“Friend!” Regina called back, trying to keep the sardonic note out of her voice. “If you are friendly,” she added.

Two guards had neared her now, looking her up and down incredulously, completely distracted by her elaborate clothing.

“What’s a … _gentleman_ like you doing out on a night like this? In a _place_ like this?” asked the fair-haired one.

“I was headed for Boar’s Rest,” she replied, naming the nearest large town, a good day’s ride away. “I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.”

“You have indeed!” the guard laughed, bored enough to take pleasure in the misfortune of another. “This path’ll get you there eventually. But you’d have been better off staying on the main toll road.”

Regina groaned theatrically. “I was afraid of that. A night out here in these woods…I’ve heard stories of bandits and thievery all through here!”

“Oh yes,” the guard laughed happily. “Look out for the Bandit Queen. You’re just the kind of morsel she’d love to gobble up!”

“Could I bother you kind gentlemen to share your fire?” Regina asked in a quavering voice. “I can pay…not in gold, but,” she patted the keg behind her,  “I’ve got the best of brandies in here. It’s bound for the fine tables at Boar’s Rest. But what’s a few sips between friends, eh?”

“Brandy, you say?” the guard asked, licking his lips. “Enough for us all?”

“Oh I’m sure it’ll go ‘round,” Regina nodded eagerly. “The proud gentlemen of the Boar won’t notice if I top up anything missing with some fine river water.”

The guard laughed uproariously. “You’re a man after my own heart! Come, join us!”

She dismounted and helped the men off-load a keg. She helped them pour and watched as they all drank deeply (including the wizards, who had obviously had enough of the cold to make them willing to turn a blind eye to this breaking of the king’s law). She appeared to drink as deeply as they did, though no brandy actually passed her lips. Before long, the keg was empty and the men were snoring, unable to resist the strength of the brandy or the sleeping draught that Regina had added to it.

Maleficent opened her eyes when she approached her. Her lip curled back revealing her sharp white teeth. She blew a gust of breath at Regina, trying for fire, but all that emerged was a trail of smoke and a wave of warm air that ruffled Regina’s plume.

“Easy, dragon. I’m a friend.”

Maleficent frowned, her eyes darting to follow Regina as she walked around her. Regina was assessing the chains, reaching out with her magic to test the strength of the binding spell that the wizards had used.

“I can’t lift the spell,” she said.

Maleficent sighed and closed her eyes again.

“But I can do this,” Regina grinned. She concentrated for a moment, then rolled her fingers in a complicated gesture. The pale purple light of her power flowed from her hands, burrowed under the line of pegs nearest to her, then exploded back up out of the ground. It brought a wedge of earth with it - a piece of the hardened mud that held a peg firmly in the ground. Regina repeated this several times, until she had pulled enough pegs loose to make an opening wide enough for the dragon to crawl under. Maleficent crept out inch by painful inch. Removing the pegs had drained Regina’s power and left her weakened, but she helped as much as she could, holding the chains as high off Maleficent’s body as she could and adding what little power she had left to create a pushing force to help the dragon move.

They were both trembling with exhaustion by the time Maleficent was finally free. But Regina’s work was not done yet. The dragon had been harmed by the magic in the chains; it had not only drained her power, but also cut into her scales, leaving gashes along her shoulders and hips where she had not been able to tuck her body low enough to escape the bite of the mesh. Her wings were singed too, the left one ragged along the edge where the chains had cut into it.

Regina ransacked the wizards’ belongings until she found soothing ointments, and she tore their robes to strips to make bandages. Perhaps waking hungover and naked and freezing would teach them enough wisdom to leave dragons alone in the future. Maleficent lay as still as she could while Regina applied the ointment to the tears in her flesh, and even though Regina took great pains to be gentle, the dragon hissed steadily with the pain of it.

When Regina was finally done binding up all the wounds, Maleficent had recovered sufficiently to stand up on all fours. She stretched her wings and flapped them, cautiously at first, then with greater force when they did not snap or tear. She looked down at Regina, head tilted and eyes narrowed. Then she shrugged and leapt into the air, wings beating to carry her higher. Her flight was erratic and she swooped and fell before she gained much height. The last sight Regina had of her, before she vanished into the dark of the night, was of the dragon finally climbing above the treetops.

The bandit sighed. She had owed the dragon a debt, and she had only been paying it off; still, it would have been nice to have had a thank you.

Regina scoured the camp for any traces of herself, took everything that may have linked back to her true identity, and then rode off. The effects of the sleeping draught would wear off by morning, but she intended to be far away before the men woke.

By some twist of fate, when dawn did come, Regina was out in open ground. She had taken a short cut across a plain, hoping to shave hours off her ride by avoiding the curve in the woods. This turned out to be a strategic error on her part. The sheriff she had left tied up in the woods had been found sooner than she had anticipated, and he had raised a force of men to come hunting for the person who had assaulted him. They had seen Regina’s distinctive red coat and black horse, and come galloping from the trees, racing to cut her off. Her horse was tired, theirs were fresh, and the cover of the trees was still far away. She struggled to call up her magic, but managed only a couple of weak fireballs before she had exhausted herself again. She drew her sword and turned to face the enemy. She’d not let herself be captured alive; the king would take too much pleasure in leaving her alive for as long as his torturers could manage it.

The men whooped and hollered when they saw her turn and halt. They could taste the victory, and were already celebrating the reward that the sheriff had promised them.

The dragon fire took them completely by surprise.

Maleficent broke through the cover of the clouds and swept down on the men, sending wave after wave of searing green flame before her. The men’s horses screamed and reared, throwing their riders and running hard for safety. Maleficent banked and turned lazily, coming at the men again, yet more gouts of flame flaring from her open mouth. The men were running too, shucking burning shirts and trousers as they fled the dragon’s assault.

The dragon came to earth by Regina, who was struggling to keep her own horse from bolting. She transformed into her human form, the tall, yellow-haired woman that Regina remembered so well. Regina’s horse finally calmed enough for her to dismount. She stood by his shoulder, rubbing soothingly at his flank, and let Maleficent approach.

“I thought I recognized your scent,” she said. “Though the mustache threw me a little.” She grinned suddenly and tapped her own lip. Regina mimicked the motion, and found her mustache had started to come lose, the glue leaving sticky patches on her fingers. She peeled it off the rest of the way.

“Better?”

“Much,” Maleficent smiled.

“The king will be on his way,” Regina pointed out.

“Don’t you mean your husband?”

“Not any more.”

“Ah.”

“A lot’s happened since we last…spoke,” Regina said carefully.

“So it seems. Perhaps we should travel together for a while? Give us a chance to catch up?”

Regina’s smile was broad. “I’d like that. Very much.”

Her bandit horde was already causing the king incredible amounts of grief. But her bandit horde with the added power of a dragon? They’d be unbeatable.

And she owed Maleficent again.

And she had a few ideas about how she could show her gratitude this time.


End file.
